this is how we brew it

Earlier this week we realized that we were running out of our previous supply of homebrews, so Thursday became the designated brewing day for us. It ended up being a pretty long process because Grey and I couldn't decide what type of beer we wanted to make. After brewing IPAs, pale ales, and red ales in the past, we wanted something a little different to go along with the warm weather we've been having in Atlanta lately.

We went over to Hop City and picked up a few different Belgian strong ales to try, then the guys there found us a recipe and sold us all the supplies we needed. We got dry malt, bittering and flavoring hops, malt extract, candy sugar, yeast, and irish moss, which is basically dried up seaweed that binds to the proteins in the beer to help clarify it.

It should end up tasting pretty similar to a Chimay Red. Here's the description from Chimay's website:

"Topped with a creamy head, it gives off a light, fruity apricot aroma produced by the fermentation. The taste perceived in the mouth is a balance confirming the fruity nuances noticed in the fragrance.

Its taste, which imparts a silky sensation to the tongue, is made refreshing by a light touch of bitterness. To the palate, the taster perceives a pleasant astringency which complements the flavour qualities of this beer very harmoniously."

So in normal person speak, the beer is going to be kind of sweet without a whole lot of bitterness, and should have a pretty high alcohol content (over 7%).

The sampler beers: Rochefort 8, Westmalle Dubbel, and Ommegang Abbey Ale - I'm convinced that Rochefort is the greatest beer in the world. TRY IT!

All of the supplies except for the dry malt

Grey and his brew pot - it's not small.

Here are some of my favorites from the new roll of film. I've been taking the film to Esix Labs, which apparently is the only place in the city of Atlanta that still processes black and white film. It is pretty expensive to get film processed there, but so far I've been really impressed at the quality of the prints. Here are some of my favorites.

This was taken at the mosque on 14th street.

Just a few of Prem's guitars: bass, electric, and acoustic.

Courtney and Helen playing in Piedmont Park

I like this because Neerav was wearing his Monster Jam clothes and just looks like a farmer in this picture

Prem and I used a tripod for this one. I set the aperture to a fairly small setting (f/19) and set a really slow shutter speed (30 seconds) to get the streaks of lights going down the highway. This shot was taken from the top of the Management parking deck in Tech Square.

On-campus photography

I got in touch with Prem yesterday to take advantage of the beautiful weather (70 degrees in February!) and take some pictures outside. I finished up my second roll of film, which was ISO 125 and black & white. By the time we got outside at about 5:30, it was a little too dark to just freehand shoot, so I was lucky that Prem brought his tripod.

We ended up finding some really great places to shoot on campus. Two of my favorites were up on top of the Van Leer building and the top of the parking deck in Tech Square. We ended up spending two hours walking around and looking for good locations, and I got a total 7 pictures. It seems like a pretty crappy return on such a long time investment, but I like how using a film camera makes you really think about your compositions before you shoot. Also it was nice that Prem has basically the same camera except digital, so he could test out the settings beforehand to make sure the pictures would come out alright!

The film is getting processed right now, and pictures should be up sometime this week.

Photo by Prem Midha

Bluegrass and Comedy Fiesta!

Yesterday we got a chance to play at one of the great bluegrass venues in Atlanta: Red Light Cafe. The event was called "The very first semi-centennial bluegrass and comedy fiesta," and I must admit, it was quite a fiesta. It started off with The Rusty Boys (my band) playing an hour long set, then two stand-up comedians performed for a while, and it finished off with an energetic performance by Seven Handle Circus.

Our set went over pretty well for the most part with a nice mix of covers and originals. We just finished writing a new original a few days ago, so that makes it a grand total of three! The covers included songs by Mumford & Sons, the Avett Brothers, Ne-Yo, Katy Perry (don't judge), Cee-lo Green, and Zack Brown Band.

Hopefully we'll be playing with Seven Handle Circus again in the future. They're all great musicians and really know how to entertain a crowd!

Well, I said in my last post way back in November that I would post some pictures that I took with my new film SLR camera. I asked a friend of mine if he could give me some tips about photography, and he taught me a lot, especially about framing and things that make a black and white photograph really stand out.

This roll of film had 36 exposures, and I used ISO 100 film. Just about all of the pictures were taken on the aperture mode, which means I was in control of the aperture of the camera while it adjusted the shutter speed in accordance with its light meter. Next, I plan on getting a red filter, which increases contrast (especially between the sky and clouds), and playing with some different effects like taking multiple exposures on the same film. Enjoy!

More Hobbies

I spent Thanksgiving break in Phoenix/Tempe, Arizona with my cousin Aykut and his family. While over there, Aykut gave me his old Canon SLR camera. And it's a film camera! That's right, the kind that you can't see the pictures immediately after taking them..you have to get them DEVELOPED! And this thing isn't just any old 35mm film camera..it's got enough features and gadgetry to keep me entertained for quite a while.

So be on the lookout, maybe I'll eventually put some photography up on this blog. I will be sticking to black & white for now, and will probably be focusing on daytime urban shots.

Why Pittsburgh is Awesome: Part 1

If you have ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes, you know how much I love Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA. I'm going to start a mini-series on this blog called Why Pittsburgh is Awesome so all of you, my loyal readers, can get a feel for how great Pittsburgh truly is.

Creativity

Pittsburgh creates creative, progressive-minded people, just by the very nature of the city. Pittsburghers knew that after the steel industry collapsed, they would have to get resourceful and be able to adapt to ever-changing conditions. They have embraced the arts, technology, sustainability, and education like no other city in the country, and now other people in other cities wonder about how they can make theirs like Pittsburgh. People look at the out-migration of young Pittsburghers as a bad thing, but so many people in my generation will gain valuable experience in other parts of the country and world, then bring all of that back with them to Western PA in the future.

Example of creative Pittsburghers doing what they do best: I just heard about a restaurant in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh called Conflict Kitchen.

This take-out only restaurant only serves food from countries that the US is in conflict with. Each country is represented for four months at a time, and right now they are serving Iranian food and going by the name "Kubideh Kitchen". From the website:

"Kubideh Kitchen is an Iranian take-out restaurant that serves kubideh in freshly baked barbari bread with onion, mint, and basil. Developed in collaboration with members of the Pittsburgh Iranian community, the sandwich is packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Iranians both in Pittsburgh and Iran on subjects ranging from Iranian food and poetry to the current political turmoil."